Q: What's the difference between St. Patrick's Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day?
A: Once a year everybody likes to pretend they're Irish.
Dolezal’s impersonation poses an interesting question, although unanswerable at this time.
But before delving into that, let’s back up and ask the question before the question: Was she an effective NAACP leader or not?
Now, there are non-African-American leaders in the NAACP, nothing in their rules preclude that so long as the person is committed to NAACP goals.[1]
So, is Dolezal delusional and really thinks she’s black, is she a pathological liar who lies because that’s what she does, or is she just a wannabee “W-bomb” as it were?[2]
‘Cuz if she’s delusional and really thinks she’s black, then her deception is not a deception in her own mind.
But that immediately calls into question just how tight her grip on reality is, and if she’s made other delusional choices in her official capacity.
If she’s a wannabee, someone who really truly-uly desires to be black because something about the African-American experience reaches her the way no other culture can, then her motives are understandable but disingenuous: She saw presenting as black to be a benefit for her job.
Why would anyone trust somebody who would deliberately and consciously carry out such a lie?
Jenner, on the other hand, has the backstop of “I always felt this way, I tried to fit in the way I was, but I couldn’t maintain that and so decided to embrace my feelings and undergo gender reassignment therapy.”[3]
Jenner’s decision to undergo a physical gender change was not a spur of the moment thing. Even people who question the wisdom of gender reassignment surgery can see how it is logically an attractive option to some who have that issue. Only bigots and hate mongers would claim Jenner was and is insane, incapable of interacting with the real world.
Which circles us back ‘round to Dolezal.
If gender identity disorder is a real thing[4], then is race identity disorder a real thing as well?
Ah, a sticky wicket.
part 5 / part 6 / part 7 / part 8 / part 9
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[4/1] Similarly, when we were doing the Serenity manga series, we made no religious test requiring our artists and writers to be Christians. So long as they helped us do the types of projects were were committed to doing, their personal religious beliefs were irrelevant. I have worked as a hired gun on Christian publishing projects where I have disagreed with specific theological points but kept my mouth shut because my job was to help them do their project.
[4/2] C’mon, you’re smart enough to figure it out.
[4/3] I presume that not everybody with gender identity disorder has the same degree of disconnect with their physical bodies and some are able to cope through therapy without going to hormone treatments or surgery. Not everyone is capable of doing that, and if a person is connected enough with their birth gender to identify elsewise, we should respect their privacy. So stop peeking under restroom stalls, Michelle Duggar.
[4/4] And it is; even those medical practitioners who doubt the wisdom of surgery acknowledge the disorder exists.